Tour de l’Aude: Teutenberg gets number 21 as Pooley takes the race

German champion extends her record as Cervélo rider becomes first British winner

Ina Teutenberg (HTC-Columbia) got her revenge for yesterday’s second place by winning the final stage of this year’s Tour de l’Aude in the departmental capital of Carcassonne. The German champion outsprinted Marianne Vos, the woman who had beaten her the day before, in a bunch sprint at the end of the 90.5km stage, with Angela Hennig (Noris Cycling) taking third.

Although there were a number of escape attempts made in the early part of the stage, twice from former teammates Andrea Bosman (Leontien.nl) and Adrie Visser (HTC-Columbia), it was Vos who finally broke the elastic. On the descent of the 2nd category Col du Poteau, she found herself out in front with Teutenberg and decided to make a lone bid for the win.

As she crossed the finish line to start the five 5.4km circuits, the Dutch champion had a lead of 1’18” and 27km still to race. With the entirely flat course though, and with the HTC-Columbia and Cervélo teams aided by Bosman and Hennig, Vos was captured with 10km to go and the sprint was on.

In the closing kilometres 2004 race winner Trixi Worrack (Noris Cycling) tried to get away with Vicki Whitelaw (Lotto Ladies) but with the peloton’s high speed escape was impossible.

Teutenberg showed why she holds the record for stage wins in Aude with her 21st career win, and her third in this race. She beat Vos, who managed to contest the sprint even after her solo break, by more than a length.

After finishing safely in the peloton, Emma Pooley (Cervélo TestTeam) becomes the first British rider to win this, the oldest stage race in the women’s calendar.

“Today the race was a little bit stressful,” said Pooley after the stage, “but the team, as it was been for this entire Tour, was just fantastic. They were always with me and showed time and again that we were the strongest team. I feel amazing today and very happy with my Tour victory – it is the first time I have won a big stage race, after the Grande Boucle last year.

“Together, our team will now enjoy the victory and celebrate by having some ice cream,” she added.

Consistent finishing and her victory on stage 8 won Vos the green points jersey, as well as the pink jersey for the best placed under-23 rider; domination in the mountains on her way to overall victory also earned Pooley the blue mountains jersey; despite crashing on the final day Brooke Miller (Tibco) won the red sprints jersey. Unsurprisingly the team competition was won by Pooley’s Cervélo TestTeam.